The Cretan State is established in 1898, following the intervention by the Great Powers (Britain, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia) on the island of Crete.

In 1897 an insurrection in Crete had led the Ottoman Empire to declare war on Greece, which lead Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia to intervene on the grounds that the Ottoman Empire could no longer maintain control.

It is the prelude of the island's final annexation to the Kingdom of Greece, which occurs de facto in 1908 and de jure in 1913.